Majority Of Peers Research Articles

Study of Profiling the Typical Fraudster in the General Education Sector in Zambia

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to profile who the typical fraudster was in the general education sector. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional design enlisting staff at provincial and district education offices were enlisted in this study. A standardized survey questionnaire was used. Findings: The sample mean materiality scores were 46.86 (± SD 12.9) and fell below the benchmark of 52 of which fraud could be considered consequential. One sample t-test showed a statistically significant difference in perceived fraud materiality in the three groups (Gender of fraudster, age group of fraudster and job type of fraudster) p values were less than 0.05 (0.001). No associations were observed between the three selected demographic variables and materiality of fraud as p values were > 0.05. Just less than half, n = 238 (44.2%) perceived fraud to be committed by accounting staff and less than half, n = 182 (33.8.8%) was committed by bosses in league with accounting staff and just less than a quarter n = 119 (22.1%) of fraud was committed by bosses. Males n = 329 (61.0%) were more dominant in committing fraud than were females n = 210 (39.0%). The under 30 years age group were perceived to account for just about half n = 239 (44.3%) of fraud whereas the under 31 to 40 years age group were perceived to account for over a quarter n = 211 (39.1%) of fraud and far less than a quarter n = 89 (16.5%) for those above 40 years. Majority of the fraudsters n = 367 (68.1%) were extroverted as compared to n = 172 (31.9%) were introverted. Fraudsters were perceived with some respect and intelligence. The majority of peers n = 362 (67.2%) considered them on a continuum of Very well respected to being respected as compared to somewhat resected n = 177 (32.8%) of all cases surveyed. In more than three-quarters of all cases surveyed n = 440 (81.6%) assessed their peers as fraudsters on a continuum from very impressed as an intellectual to that of being impressed as an intellectual as compared to only n = 99 (18.4%) as somewhat impressed as an intellectual. Conclusion: The typical fraudster in the general education sector could be mostly an accountant or a boss and holds a senior management position. The fraudster may commit the fraud once they are comfortable in their job and enjoy the trust and respect of colleagues. The fraudster is deemed to be an extrovert, intelligent, and has a high level of education.

Towards Emancipatory L2 Instruction: Exploring Significant Learning Outcomes from Collaborative Digital Storytelling

<p style="text-align:justify">Digital storytelling has undergone extensive study in different content-areas, but its naturally-combined use with collaborative writing for skills development, and reflective practice remains underresearched in pre-service EFL teacher education. This study undertook joint tech-enhanced retelling of L2 texts by 56 Turkish EFL teacher candidates, rubric-based peer and teacher assessment of final products, comparative analysis of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) between outliers, and process evaluation using the significant learning taxonomy to explore impacts on L2 writing performance, academic learning, and personal growth. Despite assigning lower scores than the teacher-assessors, especially to the top-performers, the majority of peers successfully fulfilled the job, effectively performed the future reviewer role, and positively reacted to co-construction, and technology integration. CAF and reflection analyses indicated that the biggest difference between the highest- and lowest-scoring groups lay in grammatical accuracy, and lack of mutual interaction could account for the less cooperative group’s poorer performance. The classification of their post-task responses into six kinds of learning gains (foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn) also revealed that their collaborative digital storytelling experience (CDS) elicited more procedural, critical, creative and practical thinking on the academic learning front, while disciplinary and integrative thinking may have declined due to more immediate preoccupation with task achievement. Their critical thinking was mainly organised around consensus-reaching, fluctuating membership, and logistical challenges, and most demonstrated a clear understanding of the role of positive group dynamics in group outcomes. Despite heightened awareness of the performance-boosting, character-forming, and motivational benefits of collective scaffolding and multimodal meaning-making, a minority could also discern the instrumentality of innovative teaching techniques in their future classroom practices.</p>

Personal and perceived peer use and attitudes towards use of non-prescribed prescription sedatives and sleeping pills among university students in seven European countries

IntroductionThe use of non-prescribed prescription sedatives and sleeping pills (NPPSSP) among university students has been described as an important public health issue. However, the impact of perceived social norms on students' use and attitudes towards use of NPPSSP is still unclear. Our aim was to investigate whether perceptions of peer use and approval of use are associated with students' personal use and approval of NPPSSP use. MethodsCross-sectional data from the Social Norms Intervention for the prevention of Polydrug Use (SNIPE) project containing 4482 university students from seven European countries were analyzed to investigate self-other discrepancies regarding personal use and attitudes towards NPPSSP use. Associations between personal and perceived peer use and between personal and perceived approval of use were examined using multivariable logistic regression. ResultsThe majority (51.0%) of students perceived their peers' NPPSSP use to be higher than their personal use. 92.6% of students perceived their peers' approval of NPPSSP use to be identical or higher than their personal approval. Students perceiving that the majority of peers had used NPPSSP at least once displayed higher odds for personal lifetime use (OR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.49–2.55). Perceived peer approval of NPPSSP use was associated with higher odds for personal approval (OR: 5.49, 95% CI: 4.63–6.51). ConclusionsAmong European university students, perceiving NPPSSP use and approval of use to be the norm was positively associated with students' personal NPPSSP use and approval of use, respectively. Interventions addressing perceived social norms may prevent or reduce NPPSSP use among university students.Final trial registration number: DRKS00004375 on the ‘German Clinical Trials Register’.

Being a Minority

The purpose of this research was to understand male college students’ experiences in a traditionally female academic major, such as apparel. Based on the analyses and interpretation of interviews with 22 male students from an apparel program, two topical areas emerged: (a) attitudes of toward male apparel students; and (b) experiences of male students in an apparel program. The first topical area describes what male apparel students encounter when they inform parents, friends, and people around them about their academic major. The second topical area portrays male student experiences in a major with an overwhelming majority of peers being women. The study contributes to the literature on men in non-traditional occupations. Such understanding is a precursor for minimizing gender-stereotypic career boundaries. Implications and recommendations for apparel program instructors, advisors, administrators, and career counselors are presented.

The "Snacking Child" and its social network: some insights from an italian survey

BackgroundThe hypothesis underlying this work is that the social network of a child might have an impact on the alimentary behaviors, in particular for what concerns snack consumption patterns.Methods1215 Italian children 6-10 ys old were interviewed using a CATI facility in January 2010. 608 "snackers" and 607 "no-snackers" were identified. Information regarding family composition, child and relatives BMI, mother perception of child weight, child, father and mother physical activity, TV watching, social network, leisure time habits and dietary habits of peers, were collected. Association of variables with the status of snacker was investigated using a multivariable logistic regression model.ResultsSnackers children seem to be part of more numerous social network (1.40 friends vs 1.14, p = 0.042) where the majority of peers are also eating snacks, this percentage being significantly higher (89.5 vs 76.3, p < 0.001) than in the "no-snacker" group. The snacking group is identified by the fact that it tends to practice at least 4 hours per week of physical activity (OR: 1.36, CI: 1.03-1.9). No evidence of an association between snacking consumption and overweight status has been shown by our study.ConclusionsThe snacking child has more active peer-to-peer social relationships, mostly related with sport activities. However, spending leisure time in sportive activities implies being part of a social environment which is definitely a positive one from the point of view of obesity control, and indeed, no increase of overweight/obesity is seen in relation to snack consumption.

Peers' perceptions of storytelling by an adult with aphasia

This study explored potential partners willingness to participate in storytelling conversations with communicators who have aphasia. We investigated adult peers perceptions of a communicator with aphasia as he told autobiographical stories using three communication modes - natural speech, AAC notebook and AAC digitized speech. Participants rated the communicator on five dependent measures, ranked the three storytelling modes and participated in a focus-group discussion. Analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for storytelling mode. Specifically, participants rated AAC digitized speech highest of the three storytelling modes on all dependent measures. In the ranking task, a majority of peers ranked AAC digitized speech as their most preferred storytelling mode and natural speech as their least preferred storytelling mode. Rating and ranking scores were influenced by the understandability of the story and the perceived effort required to transmit and receive it. Other issues raised in the focus-group discussions related to the authorship of the communicative message, participants lack of familiarity with the communicator and concerns regarding the therapeutic nature of the interaction. The findings of this investigation offer preliminary data about how to incorporate storytelling into the communication systems of adults with aphasia in ways that may facilitate peer participation.

Integrating handicapped and nonhandicapped preschoolers: developmental impact on nonhandicapped children.

To examine the effects of placing young nonhandicapped children in classes primarily containing handicapped children, 16 nonhandicapped children were randomly assigned to four integrated special education preschool classes. A control group consisting of 16 children, matched for age and sex, who were enrolled in three preschool classes containing only nonhandicapped children, was employed as a comparison. A battery of assessments were administered to both groups at the beginning and end of the academic year. No significant differences in performance on these measures were found. Placement of nonhandicapped children in integrated special education classes, where the majority of peers were handicapped, did not appear to interfere with normal development.